Clean everything – your hands, knives, vegetables etc. Ensure to sterilise your glass jars before starting – you can do this by either soaking them in boiling water or putting them in a hot oven for 15 minutes.

Fermentation usually takes 10 days – the longer you leave vegetables, the more sour taste they will develop. Once you are happy with the taste of your fermented vegetables, you can place it in the fridge to enjoy.

Most sauerkraut and kimchi calls for the “dry salting” method, meaning salt is rubbed into the vegetables to soften before being left to ferment.

Cinnamon spiced ganache stuffed inside a smashed Snickerdoodle bar, then dipped in chocolate! Confused? Stick with me here. They taste like a cake pop but with brownies instead of cake. And not brownies, snickerdoodle bars. Just scroll down to the recipe already.

A few weeks ago, Eric randomly says to me, “Karen, you’re almost 30 years old. You’re the same age as U2’s Joshua Tree Album. Just a few months younger.” He ponders for a moment. “I knew there was a reason I liked you.”

We celebrated our 9th anniversary yesterday. I’m really glad we have U2 to keep our marriage in perspective. I mean, how else would we keep the love alive?

We went to see U2 live last week. I always think Eric is the biggest U2 nerd, until I go to a U2 concert. After you meet over a dozen people standing in line who have seen the band in concert over 50 times (not kidding) and can name their first concert from the 80s, you realize that your husband’s obsession is extremely tame. Hashtag blessed.

The concert was super fun though. It’s a 30 year anniversary tour for The Joshua Tree album, which is all of their best stuff. (Name the first U2 song you can think of. I bet it’s from Joshua Tree.)

Okay, so these trifles need some explaining. They sound complicated but I swear they’re not. You make these Snickerdoodle Blondies. Cut them into squares. Take a square and SMASH. Then wrap it around a ball of frozen ganache. Then dip it in chocolate. See that’s not so bad right??

(These are also good with white chocolate!)

I got this idea from Hayley over at Domestic Rebel and Jocelyn at Inside BruCrew Life. They both have recipes for brownie bites/bombs that use the idea of wrapping a baked brownie around a something (Rolo, cookie dough, etc.) and then dipping in chocolate. I’ve had them before, they are amazing! My sister Laura and I were talking about them once and she suggested I try using these Chewy Brown Sugar Snickerdoodle Blondies and stuffing it with cinnamon ganache. Like to get a Mexican hot chocolate thing going on.

These are delicious room temperature, but being a warm-cookie-person at heart, I had to throw one in the microwave, just to see.

Oh yeah. Melty chocolate wins every time!

These are a fun make-ahead treat you could make for your Memorial Day parties this weekend!

*You may need up to 3 cups of chocolate and 3 tablespoons of coconut oil for dipping the truffles. Just remember 1 cup of chocolate needs about a tablespoon of oil. You can also try dipping this in white chocolate!

One time in college my best friend/roommate Sarah and I each came back from Christmas break with the exact same pair of polka-dot rain boots from Target. Same color. Same size.

I’m in Texas visiting her this week, and it took us about 30 seconds of being together to realize that we have the exact same turquoise and purple iPhone case. The exact. same. one.

We are pretty much kindred spirits. The only drawback is that now her 4-year-old son thinks my phone is hers, and steals it when I’m not looking to take a thousand selfies every day.

Eric is back home slaving away while I take a girl’s trip to visit my best friend and sister. And by girl’s trip I mean all of the children are involved, so it’s not really one of those. We went to Walmart today with all 5 of our kids. We bought limes and diapers. It took 2 hours.

I’m not complaining though. It’s easier to dodge People of Walmart photographers if you’re in a group.

I woke up on my birthday last year majorly missing my sister Laura, who lives in Dallas. I’ve never visited, so I asked for tickets to see her for Christmas, and here we are. My friend Sarah also lives in Texas (7 hours away) and I thought it would be a great idea to rent a car one way to see her too. This was before I remembered how much I LOVE taking road trips with small children, so extra bonus for me!

Really though, we’re having so much fun. Time and space got nothin on kindred spirits.

Meatloaf. I mean, other than bread, pretty much anything that has the word “loaf” in it is going to have a hard time sounding appetizing and winning beauty contests. Calling it “1770 House Meatloaf” definitely adds a little pizazz, so thanks for that Ina. Yes, this is a Barefoot Contessa recipe, so of course it is the best meatloaf I’ve ever had. It’s tender, moist, and flavorful. Pure comfort food.

My mom used to make people guess what was in her meatloaf, because she was always just throwing in whatever was in the fridge. You know, just in case meatloaf wasn’t adventurous enough for you already.

But this recipe is pretty basic. The fresh herbs and garlic sauce take it to a whole new level. Plus it’s HUGE, so it’s great for feeding a crowd. Or you could freeze half for a later meal.

Slice your celery the thin way before you chop it to get the small dice you need.

Why have I never thought of making gravy to go with meatloaf? So much better than sugary ketchup. (Let’s not get confused here: I love ketchup. But I do prefer savory sauces with meat.) And this is not even gravy. It’s garlic sauce. 10 cloves of garlic? Enough said. It’s an Ina Garten meatloaf, alright.

These cookies will blow your mind! Tons of peanut butter flavor (actual peanuts optional) paired with some chewy oats for an amazing texture. They are so tender and totally melt in your mouth!

What could be better than riding a dirty subway through San Francisco at midnight? Well I can think of about 500 things, the first one being a nice soft bed.

But THIS subway had awesome people on it (and hardly any crazy/scary/drunk people!) We were on our way back from seeing Hamilton (which was AMAZING of course) and started playing Heads Up on our phone. That’s where you hold the phone on your forehead so you can’t see it, it displays a word , and everyone else has to help you guess what it is.

My favorites were the songs. It would display a song title and everyone else has to hum the tune until the person figures it out. SO HARD!!! But extremely entertaining when everyone else on your train starts humming at you frantically.

It’s also great having a younger crowd help you out with all the Ke$ha songs that you’ve never heard of. Because who the heck is that. Also, look at how good they are at selfie-ing! So natural! It’s a skill guys. I’m all like, “hang on lemme bust out the double chin” and they’re like, I’m cool. Hang ten. I take selfies with strangers on the train all day long.

This dough is insanely good.

Coooookies. I’ve been obsessed with them lately. These Peanut Butter Oatmeal ones were my latest craving. This recipe is spot on: A big, soft, extremely chewy cookie with just the right amount of oats. I used both quick and old fashioned oats in the dough to give it great texture. The peanut butter COMES THROUGH guys. You know how sometimes peanut butter cookies aren’t peanut buttery enough? Never fear!

This Chili Mac and Cheese recipe is your new favorite 30 minute dinner! It is so easy to put together and calls for pantry items you always have on hand. (What, you don’t always have Velveeta on hand? We’re not friends.)

Yesterday I took the kids to their swimming lessons, and realized within .5 seconds of sitting down that I had left my phone at home. I hadn’t brought a book or anything to do, so I knew I was in for a long haul of actually watching my kid’s swim lessons (hey don’t judge, we are on week SIX of swim lessons this summer, how dedicated can you expect me to be??)

I knew I was in for half an hour of coming up with genius ideas to pass the time…that all involve my phone. Do you do this? Here are all the things I thought for a millisecond I could do, before remembering that I was phone-less:

This was all just in a half hour. Do you ever have thoughts like these, over and over again, when you forget your phone?? It’s pretty pathetic how attached I am!

Then after I got home I used my phone to take a picture of the list I had made so that I didn’t have to worry about losing it. FULL CIRCLE GUYS.

Have you ever made Chili Mac? It’s one of those easy ground beef recipes that every cook needs in the arsenal. It’s just a classic. I don’t know why it feels so classic to me, since my mom never made it growing up. (Speaking of classic. I saw a Facebook video the other day where people were talking about how it’s a thing to eat chili paired with cinnamon rolls. I showed it to Eric so that he could be appropriately disgusted, but instead he said, “Oh yeah, chili and cinnamon rolls every Friday for lunch at school growing up.” Whaaaa???

Well I’ll take some cornbread with my Chili Mac, hold the cinnamon rolls please.

Do you see all that char? It’s a beautiful thing. It’s just from using fire roasted Rotel, which I highly recommend.

Don’t go hating on my Velveeta now. It makes for the CREAMIEST, CHEESIEST soups ever. I wouldn’t put it on a sandwich (okay well. Maybe a grilled cheese.) But I’m telling you, Velveeta in soup is just lovely. If it’s not your thing, you can totally use shredded cheddar instead. I’ve tried it both ways and they are both delicious! (whichever one you use, you should definitely top each serving with freshly shredded cheddar.)

A big ol SLAB pie to feed a crowd, using fresh apricots (with a few peaches if you don’t have enough) and the most abundant, flakiest crust everrr. The best part: douse your whole slice in a healthy splash of cold cream.

The other night Eric and I went to a new restaurant for our weekly date. It was supposedly Italian. The first thing we ordered was a “Not so Crudite” appetizer plate that was described as grilled stone fruit paired with some grilled vegetables and ranch (why did we order this??)

As we’re eating, Eric takes one of the grilled half-peaches, tastes it, and thoughtfully says, “I think…Yeah, I think it’s a peach!” And I stare at him, because of COURSE it’s a peach. And that’s when I found out that he thought “stone fruit” was a new special kind of fruit that he’d never heard of.

This totally reminds me of Eric and the Nutella incident, in which he thought Nutella was spelled Gnutella. Once again: he will never live it down. (I have to take advantage of my blog for stuff like this, because the number of stupid things I say compared to Eric is like 10 to 1, so I have to dig in when he thinks stone fruit is magical and Nutella is Gnutella.

This recipe is a staple in my sister-in-law Sandi’s family. She grew up with an apricot tree in the backyard, just like I did, but somehow my parents didn’t realize that apricots are God’s gift to Slab Pie, because I definitely didn’t have this recipe before last summer, when I begged it off Sandi. If you don’t have a tree full of ripe apricots to choose from, sometimes it’s cheaper or more convenient to throw a couple peaches in with it–or use all peaches. You really can’t go wrong with any combo. I didn’t count the first time, but on my second pie I used about 14 medium/large apricots, and 3 large peaches.

You haven’t lived until you have drizzled an obscene amount of heavy cream all over your slab pie. I didn’t think I would like it at first, when Sandi told me that her family eats most summer-fruit-cobbler-ish anything in a bowl, with a small puddle of cream. I’m not that into whipped cream. (I think I got burned one too many times as a kid by thinking a cake was frosted in buttercream and it turned out to be whipped cream) And isn’t cream a step down from whipped cream?

No. No it is not. We’ve been complicating our lives too much guys. Put down that mixer. Just pour on the cream: no vanilla, no sugar, just straight up cream. (Or half and half will do.)

(Don’t hate me for my newbie lattice crust guys. First time for everything. At the end of the day I still got to eat PIE!)

The first time we had it (I made it twice in one week), my BFF Sarah requested only a tablespoon of cream on top. She changed her mind halfway through her slice of pie. More cream! More cream! Let this be your mantra.

A note on the amount of sugar called for in the recipe: I literally JUST wrote a blog post where I complain about “real” cooks who are incapable of giving me a real recipe and instead tell me to add stuff until it looks right. I’m not that kind of cook. So you may be raising your eyebrows at my sugar amounts.

Here’s the thing: not all apricots are created equal. Sometimes you have super ripe fresh-from-the-tree apricots. And sometimes you have week-old apricots from the grocery store that you were waiting to ripen but instead the skin is shriveling while the inside remains hard and begins to rot. (The worst, right?)

You want to end up with a pie that is not overly sweet; too much sugar covers up the beautiful tartness of the apricots. So the general rule is this: if you have ripe apricots, use 1 and 1/2 cups sugar. If you have stubborn not-quite-ripe fruit, use 2 cups, or meet somewhere in the middle. The nice thing is that it’s not going to make or break your pie. If you’re pie is too sweet, or a little too sour, guess what, people are still going to ask for seconds, especially when you show them the cream trick.

Here’s a peach I used in this pie. Not even ripe enough to get to the pit.

Here’s how I often transfer pie dough: just roll it right up on the rolling pin, then unroll into the dish.

Aaaand here’s the part where I made my semi-acceptable lattice crust and then realized I forgot to add the butter and spices. So I folded back my lattice, because I would rather have butter in my pie then a pretty crust. I mean, priorities.

Here’s the original recipe, it’s always fun to see old recipes like this I think: (don’t worry the printable is below)

This Classic Shepherd’s Pie Recipe is gravy-soaked beefy goodness, with peas and carrots, covered with 5 pounds of potatoes. Because there are NEVER ENOUGH MASHED POTATOES. The best Shepherd’s Pie, done right my friends.

Originally published February 23, 2016.

Have you ever taught a kid to roller skate before? Turns out I am literally the worst person in the world for this job. (Where is my parenting manual?? I know I’m going to need it come 6th grade math, too. Don’t judge me.) This about sums it up:

Here’s Charlotte and I at her cousin’s birthday party at the skating rink. You will note that I am most certainly not wearing roller skates. If I had, we would BOTH be sprawled out under the disco lights.

Seriously, “find your balance?” “glide outward”? SHE’S FIVE. It’s like I’m giving yoga instructions to a puppy. No wonder she’s holding on for dear life in that photo. I may as well be telling her to do the crow pose.

I was laughing, but that’s because I only had one kid at the party. You should have seen the mom’s trying to drag 2 or even 3 kids along. Note: a 5-year-old wielding a roller-skate-clad foot is a danger to innocent feet everywhere.

Now Charlotte is asking for her own pair of roller skates. I am now preemptively collecting donations for her body cast. And for my pair of steel-toed shoes.

Do you love Shepherd’s Pie as much as I do? We didn’t have the traditional version growing up. My mom made “Meat and Potato Stuff.” No, I’m not kidding. (We also had “Chicken and Broccoli Stuff.” Bless your heart Mom.) Meat and Potato Stuff had tomato sauce and was basically Sloppy Joe Casserole. (Which explains why I was not into it. Sloppy Joes are gross. Slop sloppy joes…slop, sloppy joes.)

THIS Shepherd’s Pie however, is anything but sloppy. You make a flavorful gravy with beef broth and ground beef, add some peas and carrots, and cover it up with All The Potatoes. In my opinion, the greatest fault of most Shepherd’s Pies is a serious lack of creamy potato-y goodness. It’s all meat, tiny potatoes. Not gonna cut it for this mashed potato freak. 5 pounds definitely does the trick though!

Allllllll the potatoes.

Top it off with some cheddar cheese that you broil for a few minutes to make it extra crispy. Mm-mm. Invite the neighbors because this casserole feeds a small army!

*I’m a little obsessed with Better Than Bouillon. I use 1 teaspoon of the stuff per cup of water to equal however many cups of broth I need. (so for this recipe, 1 and 1/2 cups water + 1 and 1/2 teaspoons paste.) I tried this the second time with 1 and 1/2 cups beef broth from a box, but I still added one teaspoon of Better than Bouillon. It just adds so much flavor!

All of the seasonings in the mashed potatoes are totally according to taste, of course! If it doesn’t taste like you want to eat 12 more bites when you taste it, add more salt

Cherry pie with the stars and stripes is the perfect dessert to bring for your 4th of July barbecue! It’s a lot easier than it looks, especially since this pie is made from (shh) canned tart cherries! It’s SO delicious with a scoop of ice cream.

Oh what a beautiful mooooorning! Oh what a beautiful daaaaay! Who knows that song from “Oklahoma”? It’s a classic right? Here’s something shameful: I’ve never seen it. I know the song because there is a preview for it on the double VHS tape of Sound of Music that we had growing up (that I watched all.the.time).

But it’s such a great song and is just how I’m feeling this morning. Much of this has to do with the fact that my windows are open and the 110 degree weather of last week seems to have passed. HALLELUJAH!

Good feels also might be from the fact that I bought a bunting this week and nailed it to the fence out front. If I had heard myself say that sentence a few years ago I would have had no idea what I was talking about. I’m not much one for decorating and I feel like bunting is Advanced Decorating Vocabulary.

But I’m all in the spirit of 4th of July this year, probably because I’ve been obsessed with listening to Hamilton since we saw it in San Francisco a few weeks ago. BRING ON THE PATRIOTISM. I AM NOT THROWIN AWAY MY SHOT.

Can you guys find fresh tart cherries at your grocery store? I never see them. I feel like that’s the kind of thing you need to go to the farmer’s market for, which I should probably do sometime. But until then, canned tart cherries. They make for a delicious pie. (Just don’t use sweet cherries, those beautiful dark red Bings you see at the store. They are too sweet for pie and would be better off being placed directly in your mouth.) The best cherries for this pie are Morello cherries, you can get them at Trader Joe’s or online. The Oregon brand of tart cherries at the grocery store works fine too.

Normally I would scoff at spending so much time on a pie only to use canned cherries, but I swear you guys, this pie is amazing. And anything that is this pretty is just fun to eat anyway. I promise it’s not that hard. Pies look intimidating, but they just take a bit of practice. The top of this pie is actually pretty easy because you don’t even have to lift an entire pie crust, you just cut out the parts you need. Easy peasy. And all your friends will ooh and aah.

I made this pie twice because I overcooked the crust the first time. It’s always such a tragedy when you spend all that time rolling out dough and then ruin it in the oven. I think part of the problem was all the jagged edges from the stars, they cooked faster. I also baked it at 400 degrees F for 50 minutes, and didn’t cover it for the first 20 minutes, so that didn’t help. If you want to try doing all stars (like the above photo), use the foil shield the entire bake time, and switch the oven temp just like it says in the recipe below.

Sorry I forgot to take more detailed pictures of cutting out the top crust! If you squint your eyes you can see the swirly lines (for the stripes) from the knife I used. I used a non serrated paring knife. I cut stars from the rest of the dough using a star shaped cookie cutter.

Here’s how to make the crust shield. I feel like this pie is going to outer space. Also ignore the banana peel and random glow stick.

OH! I almost forgot to mention my new recipe plugin! (That’s the box below where my printable recipe shows up, for those who don’t speak Computer.) Check it out. Hopefully it will be a little easier to print the recipe now. And now a photo will show up on the page when you print! So many people have asked me for that over the years, it’s finally here! Yay!

More 4th of July recipes coming later this week! Oh have a beautiful morning and a beautiful daaaaaay!

Cherry pie with the stars and stripes is the perfect dessert to bring for your 4th of July barbecue!

by The Food Charlatan

*You can use all shortening, or any combination of shortening and butter that you like. This is the combo I like.

**You can buy the Oregon brand tart cherries (14.5 oz) at most nice grocery stores (in the canned fruit section). But Morello cherries are even better; you can find them in 12 ounce jars at Trader Joe’s. Use 3 jars and drain well. I’ve never tried it, but I’ve read you can also use thawed and drained frozen tart cherries. (Just make sure you don’t use sweet cherries)